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| Spiritual Housecleaning: Healing the Space Within by Beautifying the Space Around You | 
 enlarge | Author: Kathryn L. Robyn
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $4.74
You Save: $8.21 (63%)
Buy New/Used from $4.74
Avg. Customer Rating:  (20 reviews)
Sales Rank: 282978
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 189
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 1572242396
Dewey Decimal Number: 204.4
EAN: 9781572242395
ASIN: 1572242396
Publication Date: May 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In today?s high-stress world, most people look to home as a refuge. Yet frantic schedules and waning energy often turn the dream into a dispiriting nightmare of dirt, clutter, and disorganization. Spiritual Housecleaning shows how the cleanliness and order of each room in a house represents and affects specific aspects of an individual?s spiritual health and well-being. Each chapter provides a series of practical exercises to help readers take on the most mundane tasks of cleaning with mindfulness and self-examination.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Inifinite in The Mundane November 26, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The idea that everything we do has a spiritual component can really upset those subscribing to man-made inventions (i.e. the "organized" religions).
This is about being mindful, about "practicing" (service to the soulful) everyday of your life. If that kind of thing doesn't make sense to you, you probably won't enjoy the perspective.
I love the way the author goes through each room of the house and describes their significance. Then she leads you through exercises where you learn what is important to you about those rooms. Knowing that, you can then focus on what to highlight. Because highlighting what is valuable to you is what makes a space healing.
A lot of energy here is spent on healing, it could be long term healing (making your own place of home) or short term healing (getting over the stresses of the day). As the author states: "Healing has many pathways. Generally, it builds on the view that physical health, mental health, emotional stability, and spiritual well-being are connected, because healing is wholeness and wholeness is, well, all of you."
Running through the energies of the day (living the day in sacred space), being in the transitions (waking, engaging, socializing, transitioning to time with self = sleep) are very sane ideas for a society that has lost touch with these. All healing is challenging, so if you aren't willing to look at things, this may not be for you either.
Another quote:
"The main thing is this: When you notice you are feeling, thinking, and being negative, you recognize that something's up for you and you spend the energy to use it for healing, destroying only that which needs destroying and constructing only that which wants constructing."
And:
"So, whether you're done or not, you should cherish yourself with pride. You trudged, slipped, or fell to the basement and climbed back up, finding your soul expressed in everything you do, more powerful, more yourself than before, and with all the promise that a cherished soul is entitled to."
This is how the author writes. This is a book about spiritual and psychological health, it's not about using ammonia, or baking soda, or...(Debra Lynn Dadd's the source for that). This is a wonderful book that goes through the spaces you occupy and the effect they have on your being, how you feel. I would also recommend the book "House As A Mirror of Self" if you find "Spiritual Housekeeping" useful.
 An unusual book, to say the least... November 3, 2006
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
I really like the emphasis on how your space and your psyche are connected and how to create a space that nourishes the people that use it. I found a lot of the other stuff off-putting and quite frankly, bizarre. I am not in the last interested in conducting New Age-y "Healing Ceremonies" and how to contact my "Spirit Guide."
Misleading title September 18, 2005
19 out of 23 found this review helpful
This is really a book about *emotional* metaphors for cleaning; spirituality is so much bigger than that. There were several aspects of the book that left me feeling like the author doesn't really understand spirituality. For example, the opening material starts by painting a picture of the author resting in her accomplishments on a float in a pool. To me this was an image depicting the opposite of spirituality; the author seems to be enjoying a relaxing, pampering experience that her relative wealth has entitled her to, but it seems devoid of spiritual meaning or depth. That said some of the metaphors (for example, a description of washing the dishes and how that mirrors one's personal life) are useful for developing a focus on a specific housekeeping task and for adding a bit of creativity and reflection to routines.
I often felt that some of the exercises brought me through emotional pain, which would have been entirely welcome to me if I weren't left to hang without any sense of forward momentum or resolution. The irony in this is that the author makes a big point early on about caring for a crying child with an invisible boo-boo, yet she leaves her readers hanging out to dry. This book would probably work well for someone who just wants to add a little bit of creative thought and reflection to housekeeping tasks, but doesn't have major reworkings to do with regard to housekeeping. Related books that are built on a stronger spiritual foundation include: Everyday Sacred by Sue Bender and Being Home by Gunilla Norris.
 Zen of Floor Scrubbing August 24, 2005
3 out of 15 found this review helpful
Yes, it's yet another book that promises a spiritual component to scrubbing the bathroom floor on hands and knees! The central message of this book is that you will experience personal growth if you dust every now and again. For people who haven't lifted a duster in years, this may be a ground-breaking insight (possibly literally). However, if you already have an essentially clean house, the best you can hope to find here is assurance that you're bursting with emotional health.
Too-too July 11, 2005
10 out of 16 found this review helpful
The writer of this book leads readers into, well, a mess. The information and ideas are hard to find, let alone grasp. The writing style wanders around the point versus nailing it. A frustrating book. On the same topic, SACRED SPACE by Denise Linn is a much better book because it gets to the POINT much more quickly and is easier to understand.
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